


The City We Became

by TomorrowTakesForever



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (android) Military rule, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Androids, Angst and Feels, Boys In Love, Dejun's city has extreme censorship, Dystopia, Electric fence for territory division, Falling In Love, Fear of androids, Foster homes, M/M, Multi, Oppressed planet, Swearing, mass surveillance, mentions of guns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:13:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29032989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomorrowTakesForever/pseuds/TomorrowTakesForever
Summary: Xiao Dejun lives in a silent city besieged by military surveillance and electric fences.After sneaking into illegal grounds and bordering the edge of the city hills, he meets two boisterous boys living on the other side of the fence. Liu Yangyang and Huang Guanheng.
Relationships: Liu Yang Yang/Wong Kun Hang | Hendery, Liu Yang Yang/Wong Kun Hang | Hendery/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun, Liu Yang Yang/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun, Wong Kun Hang | Hendery/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun
Comments: 3
Kudos: 43
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	The City We Became

**Author's Note:**

> I'm very happy I made it just in time to participate in this theme/challenge. 
> 
> Sci-Fi might be one of my favorite genres, and Xiaohenyang might have a whole chunk of my heart.

Silence was all Xiao Dejun knew.

It drowned the entire city beyond his bedroom walls and neighborhood, spreading out in the plazas and schools where no words were allowed or exchanged at all. _Deios_ – a silenced city on a forbidden planet of Andromeda – was known for its faultless quietude. For its prohibition of dialogue. For its censorship of dispute. 

It had fallen to a _deep_ deep quiet a decade ago when the local android militia built a fence in the seventies and threatened those who made noise and spoke too loud. That was the beginning of the blanket of quiet that the city lay under. 

Dejun tried questioning the system a couple of times. A _refusal to listen_ he called it, but he was driving himself mad trying to find meaning in silence. Deios sank in the kind of quiet that made his thoughts questionable too.

But as much as the militia tried, they would never be able to get rid of all sound. Crows in the night-sky flapped their wings and cawed, always making up for the lost sounds of humans. Dejun’s shoes made noise when he ran on the concrete too fast. His fists made a commotion when he punched the walls of the house.

The real fear of the city dawned upon him years ago, though. When he’d been barely fourteen and he was on a stroll along the segregated streets before his curfew. He reached the electrocuting city fence and his heart dropped to the pits of his stomach when he felt hard, cold metal on the back of his neck. A _V-iex C-Series soldier_ , three times his size and height, placed a rifle against his skin.

_Do not speak and do not trust the fence. Return home or you will be immediately incarcerated._

In the deadly silence, Dejun still remembered the sound of his footsteps as he walked back home with an uneasy limp. 

Sometimes the quiet was interrupted by a loud shot, and sometimes Dejun wept and dug his fingers deep into the mattress of his bed. His sobs were anything but quiet, yet Qian Kun, his roommate at the time, had looked so guilty across the foster home’s room that he had always kept it a secret.

—

The first time Dejun saw him, something inside of him awakened.

It wasn’t the first time he came across someone from the opposite city, and it wasn’t the first time he considered running down the hill to avoid interaction either, but the boy _beamed_ at him as soon as their eyes met. Dejun couldn’t recall the last time anyone had done that at all, even though it had probably been Qian Kun before he left the foster home years ago.

The electric fence was supposed to divide the city of Deios and Deka for a reason. Deios had absolute _quiescence_ ; Deka had _resonance_. But over the years, the eastern hills of Deios had stopped presential V-iex surveillance as no one besides Dejun ever went there. He guessed the acres-worth of fence was just as dangerous as it was on every other edge of the city. 

“No matter how hard you look, you’ll never find anything in Deios.”

Dejun jerked around abruptly. Had the boy spoken to him? He could _talk_? As desperate for words as he had been for his entire life, Dejun could not utter a single sound back. He feared for his life as much as the day he had almost lost it. His head whipped to look around him, making sure a V-iex didn’t jump him from behind, and aimed a gun at him for interacting with someone from Deka.

Dejun looked at the boy, realizing it was the first voice he'd heard in forever, and all he could do was stare. 

“ _Bullshit_ , huh? ‘Cos I found you!” The boy smiled like he’d done earlier, showing a row of perfectly white and straight teeth. Dejun flinched. “Sometimes I thought that everything they said about Deios was some kinda urban myth, but you’re very fucking real. What’s your name?”

He watched him in silence for the longest time. Both in awe and fear. 

“Oh, you really don’t speak? Or is that another lie about the stories they say about this place?”

_You shouldn’t be here. You shouldn’t be here!_

“I come here all the time but it’s the first time I– _wait_ , you understand me, right?”

Dejun stayed still and blinked. He nodded shakily and tried articulating with his hands that _yes, he could understand,_ and _you shouldn’t be here,_ but the boy from the fence only stared back at him in deep wonder. “Do you know how to write? I can bring a pen and paper tomorrow.”

His expression probably perked up as soon as those words came out because the boy across from him beamed all over again. Dejun felt his resolve crumbling far too quickly. “Alright, come here tomorrow. Same spot. Right here, okay? You’re not gonna _ditch_ me, are you?”

For the first time in a long while, Dejun covered the faintest smile on his face with the back of his hand. The boy caught it very quickly and returned it.

Dejun realized it was pretty. 

—

His name was Liu Yangyang and he was eighteen-years-old. 

Their fingers brushed every time Dejun slipped a ripped piece of paper to him in between the safe gaps of the electric fence, and he waited for a verbal response in silence. Yangyang had brought a notepad the size of his hand and told him to keep it and bring it every time they met, and just like that, Dejun had hidden another smile behind his palm. 

Dejun’s handwriting was an awful mess of a scribble, but he wrote as quickly as he could whenever Yangyang asked something. He was still captivated by the thought that he had never encountered anyone from Deka before, and yet he was here with him, speaking to him with the most _boisterous_ and delightful voice ever.

Yangyang read the words in the note Dejun had given to him and huffed, “How does Deios look like further in the city?”

_It’s very empty. Everywhere._

“Empty?” Yangyang thought out loud, “Maybe because it’s quiet all the time.” 

_I think so too._

Despite sitting on the grass across from him for the last hour or so, Dejun found himself looking at Yangyang’s face very carefully for the first time. “Are you lonely?” He asked, killing the silence.

 ~~_All the time_~~ _. Sometimes._

“Honestly, me too. I only have Guanheng. I’ll ask him to come next time.”

_When’s next time?_

“Friday? I have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow.”

Dejun nodded quickly and Yangyang looked almost relieved. “Guanheng’s great. I think you’ll really like him.”

—

“This is him,” Yangyang announced when Dejun arrived at the fence on Friday. He didn't know whether he was saying that to him or Guanheng, but either way, Dejun smiled at the realization that he’d gotten better at whispering.

Guanheng stretched a pale hand in between the gaps of the wires, looking unconcerned about the possibility of his skin coming into contact with the electric fence. Yangyang ogled at the way Dejun’s fingers reached out as well to take Guanheng’s hand in his.

Dejun looked up and Yangyang smiled at him in a silent, meaningful way. 

And that was when it properly began. Sneaking out on the daily to see them. Falling in love with the sound of their uproarious laughs and stunning smiles. Deios was as silent as ever, but Dejun had found intensity and thrill in the voices and stories of Yangyang and Guanheng. 

He still flinched when Yangyang or Guanheng were too loud, nonetheless. He tried reminding them through sheets of paper that that was what life in Deios did to someone. 

_It’s dangerous. If someone or a V-iex saw us communicating, I don’t think they’d have any mercy._

Guanheng sadly leaned his head against Yangyang’s shoulder, a long strand of black hair falling on the other boy’s exposed neck. “Do you ever want to leave?”

_Sometimes I wished I was on your side of the fence._

But people never survived when they tried crossing it. That much he knew. _Do not trust the fence._ How could he? He'd seen and heard the consequences before. The fence was far more terrifying than V-iex’s guns and he’d had one pointed at him once already. 

“I know, Dejun.” Yangyang gripped Guanheng’s hand and played with it on his lap distractedly. “Maybe someday you will be.”

—

“Something on your mind?” Guanheng asked Yangyang one late afternoon through a yawn-puff. Dejun stared at them with distortion, growing more and more frustrated with the wires in between them every day.

“I’m just tired,” Yangyang mirrored a yawn of his own as he watched the other side of the hill. “Dejun, you ever slept on a real bed with, like, bedsheets? And a pillow?”

_Sure. A long time ago._

“Your face gives me the sensation that it wasn’t a long time ago,” Yangyang’s voice was slightly brighter as he joked, “Remember I still got that theory that your foster home has secretly rich patrons. Lucky ass. Guanheng and I got these kinda like… sheets we put on the ground? My back’s all stiff 'cos of it.”

Dejun watched both of them and Guanheng smiled at him. “At least we got sheets, dude.”

“Fuck the sheets, Guanheng! I want a real bed.”

As soon as Dejun laughed, Yangyang’s scowl left his face, instantly forgetting what he was even complaining about. 

_I need to go._ Dejun hated himself every time he slipped a note with those words. Yangyang always deflated and Guanheng pretended it didn’t kill his mood.

“Tomorrow?” Yangyang would always ask before Dejun could disappear down the hill. “Will you come tomorrow?”

Dejun smiled because he asked the same question every time, and the answer was always the same too.

_Of course I’ll come tomorrow._

—

_(“You like us, right?”_

_Dejun’s eyebrows twitched at the question. He didn’t write any answer on the notepad even when Yangyang looked seconds away from repeating himself. He frowned and hoped his offended look portrayed the kind of words he would have said if he could._ You know I do. What a stupid question.

_“Sorry.” He had given Guanheng an embarrassed look. “Just wanted to make sure you like us as much as we like you.”)_

—

_How does it feel to hold the hand of the one you love?_

Guanheng considered the words as Yangyang blurted out an answer, “That’s a difficult question.”

Dejun wanted to narrow his eyes at him and call him a liar. He’d seen Yangyang hold Guanheng’s hands many times in the past. Sometimes when they were late and they were running up the hill to meet with Dejun, and sometimes when they were laughing so hard about a stupid joke that he instinctively reached out to take Guanheng’s fingers in between his. 

But even if Yangyang was lying, Dejun didn’t complain about it because it would have been stupid. Sometimes he wondered if the only reason he loved them was because they were allowed to speak.

Guanheng reached a hand out through the gaps of the fence, reminding him of the first time they met, and Dejun felt his heartbeat stutter. The hidden meaning, the implications of what Guanheng was offering after Dejun had written that silly question made his breath falter. No, he definitely loved him. And just as quickly, Yangyang was sneaking his hand to hold him too. He loved _both_ of them. For millions of reasons.

And Yangyang was right. Answering that question with words was difficult, but at least he could feel it. 

He watched their shadows under the seven moons of the forbidden planet. They looked bigger than ever in the sky. For a long minute, Dejun wished he could climb the electric fence.

Dejun slipped the last note of the evening. 

_I’m so happy here._

“Me too,” Guanheng agreed before Dejun rolled down the hill with a stupid flush on his high cheeks. Yangyang looked at him with an expression he had never seen before, and Dejun thought he really, really loved it. 

—

Dejun didn’t really know when he'd stop coming to meet them altogether. The possibility of a V-iex catching him sneaking into the hills was always a risk. He returned home with his heart on his throat, and that was why he didn’t mind wearing it on his sleeve more often now that he realized that he might stop visiting them eventually. He’d never know which might be the last set of words he’d be left with to remember from Yangyang or Guanheng, so he appreciated every syllable.

It was even worse when he imagined Yangyang’s voice buzzing against the glass window of his room during his dreams. He sometimes saw Guanheng’s smile as he lied on a bed he knew Yangyang would love, and he hated waking up to the reality of the fence.

 _Dejun_ , he remembered Yangyang’s facial expressions when he closed his eyes, _you ever slept on a real bed?_

—

Dejun wanted to be himself, but he didn't even know who that was. He closed his eyes, and the world spun black when he opened them again and heard Yangyang say something that made Guanheng laugh hysterically. When the fence they built in the seventies finally falls, Dejun might feel fearless again, but that day, he was absolutely terrified. He took an agonizing deep breath before curling his tongue against the roof of his mouth and said: “I want to... cross this damned fence.”

The words burnt his throat as soon as he let them out. Through guttural breathing, Dejun kept going and Guanheng jolted up in shock at the sound of his voice. He said, “I want to leave this city.”

Yangyang stared at him unblinkingly. He attempted to conceal his disbelief with an unusually low voice. “If you come here, you might never go back to Deios.” 

_“That's why it's so hard to choose.”_

“But what do _you_ want the most?” He asked in the quietest whisper Dejun had ever heard from him. Yangyang never did quiet. Never did it well. But then again, Dejun never did boisterous either, and there he was. 

“I…” Dejun’s eyes filled with tears, and from the corner of his eyes, he could see Guanheng holding onto Yangyang’s arm with hope. “I want to go with you.”

—

Dejun knew that Yangyang and Guanheng were waiting for him on the opposite side of the fence. Probably speaking too loud for their own sake, and probably laughing at some stupid joke Yangyang had said.

He looked behind him one last time. A small sheet of paper torn from his notepad placed on top of the bed’s comforter. He argued with himself that it would be empty until some other boy inherited it just like Kun’s bed had been vacant for four days before the patrons found a new roommate for him. He considered writing a letter to Kun, but he also didn’t want to give him yet another secret of his to keep. He couldn’t be so selfish. 

_“You should leave a note,”_ Yangyang had suggested the day before. His legs had been tangled with Guanheng’s, and his head was propped on an unflattering angle under his elbow. “God, imagine when your city newspapers all have bold headlines that read ‘ _Xiao Dejun, nineteen, leaves a farewell note on foster home before escaping’_ , or some shit like that?”

Dejun didn’t cover his laugh with his palm for once. It was difficult to unlearn a habit, but he was getting there. 

Guanheng perked up after being quiet for too long, _“Fuck yeah. Fuck Deios. You tell them what’s on your mind, Dejun.”_

The sun went down like a symphony; the colors looking like an elaborate composition full of movements. Dejun watched it in silence from his bedroom window and held his breath. He wasn’t doubting himself. Not really. Further off from Deios, there was sound; in the valleys and hills that belonged to Deka. 

Deka, where he hoped his new home would be, and where people might gather and stare in disbelief as the boy from the silenced city showed that he could be loud too.

_I would much rather cross this fence than stay here in silence for the rest of my life._

Because that’s all there would ever be if he stayed. He loved the prospect of listening to Yangyang and Guanheng over and over again until his memories were filled with their voices instead. 

_If I don’t leave, all I will hear for eternity will be silence._

Dejun wanted Yangyang’s beautiful smile on his neck ceaselessly, and he also wanted to pull up Guanheng’s black hair in a disastrous mess with his own hands. He wanted to kiss their cheeks, hold their hands under the seven moonlights, and pull their bodies closer to his for once.

The fence might still burn anyone who touched it, V-iex C-Series soldiers might still threaten everyone with their pointed guns, and the people of Deios might never speak out, but tomorrow, in the hill where he met Yangyang and Guanheng, his universe would embrace the feeling of what was deeply vibrant and resonant. All there would ever be. 

He looked at the note once more and smiled at his handwriting. It had gotten better, after all. 

_You know the truth now, so don’t forget why I’m leaving this city!_

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I heard somewhere that they all lived happily ever after. (If you believe.)
> 
> Please do spare kudos and comments about what you thought! I infinitely appreciate any kind of feedback :)
> 
> Take care and make sure to enjoy the rest of the fics in this collection! xx
> 
> [My Twitter](https://twitter.com/xiaojuniverses) if you want to scream about WayV or any of their ships with me!


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